Innovative ventures by students raising awareness Offering massage to building toilets, Indian students taking the onus

Students in Tamil Nadu crowd-funded a toilet for their friend who lacked the basic necessity at home. In some other cases, students have been victims of exploitation. A video displaying a teacher from Chhattisgarh asking his students to give him a massage went viral on internet; and the principal of a primary school in Bihar was sentenced to 17 years in prison over a meal tragedy where 23 children had died after consuming food at school.

Indian students have been in news for various reasons.

Recently, in Nagapattinam district of southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, four high school children, distressed by their friend’s aggravation, took the initiative to build a lavatory. Impoverished and suffering, Agathiyan told his friends about the poor sanitation facilities in his house, when asked about his frequent absence from school, and showed the diseased skin on his foot. With encouragement from their teacher, the students collected money from their classmates and constructed the toilet by doing the work themselves.

Several cases have been reported on harassment faced by students in school. According to a report by the New Indian Express, a 47-year-old teacher of a primary school in Tamil Nadu was arrested for allegedly molesting fifth standard girl students. In another case, a class XI student of a private school suffered partial hearing loss after a teacher allegedly slapped him several times for not wearing proper school uniform, reported the Times of India.

Students giving massage to the teacher.

Recently, in a video, a high school teacher from Chhattisgarh in central India allegedly made his students give him a massage. Shot earlier this month, the video was circulated on social media on August 30. The teacher said that that he was unwell and the students gave him a massage voluntarily. He has been suspended.

Also, in another incident, convicted of murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy, the former principal of the primary school, where 23 children died after eating food cooked in contaminated oil at a school in the eastern India state of Bihar on July 16, 2013, was sentenced to 17 years of imprisonment by the court on 29th August, 2016.

“Strategies to ameliorate the negatives in the educational institutions are required to help students, many of whom do not reveal their problems and troubles, and improve the school environment for the students to learn and learn better”, said an alumnus of a Delhi government school.